Methods and systems for session-based and secure access control to a data storage system

Abstract

A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for session-based and secure access control to a data storage system, comprising: detecting an activation signal for initiating access to the data storage system; and at least one write session to write write session-related data to the data storage system. In the method, each of the at least one write sessions comprises: in response to detecting the activation signal, determining a free physical storage subarea of the data storage system to be used during the write session to write the data, and selectively assigning this storage subarea to this write session; receiving or generating the data to be written in the context of the write session; protecting the data using an access protection, in particular assigned individually to the write session, which protects it from later access from unauthorized other access sessions to the data storage system; and outputting the access-protected data in order to write it to the storage subarea of the data storage system that is selectively assigned to the write session, or to cause this to be done.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for session-based and secure access control to a data storage system, the method comprising:
 detecting an activation signal to initiate access to the data storage system; and   at least one write session to write write session-related data to the data storage system;   wherein each of the at least one write sessions comprises:   in response to detecting the activation signal, determining a free physical storage subarea of the data storage system to be used during the write session to write the data and selectively assigning this storage subarea to this write session;   receiving or generating the data to be written in the context of the write session;   protecting the data using an access protection which protects it from later access from unauthorized other access sessions to the data storage system; and   outputting the access-protected data in order to write it to the storage subarea of the data storage system that is selectively assigned to the write session, or to cause this to be done.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the received or generated write session-related data is at least partially recording data which represents one or more real events or states of objects acquired continuously or repeatedly over a specific period of time by means of a recording system. 
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the access protection comprises at least one of the following measures:
 a cryptographic encryption of the write session-related data;   the or each further write session is only opened subject to a preceding successful authentication of a write request requesting the write session.   
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 3 , wherein the encryption of the write session-related data takes place by means of an integrity-protecting and/or symmetric encryption. 
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 3 , wherein encrypting of the write session-related data for each write session takes place using a cryptographic key which is individually assigned to this respective write session. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein:
 the method comprises multiple write sessions;   determining the physical storage subarea of the data storage system to be assigned to the respective write session in the context of a direct or indirect address mapping from an address space with logical storage addresses to an address space with physical storage addresses of the physical storage area to be assigned to the respective write session; and   for at least two of the write sessions, the respective logical address spaces for the address mapping match at least with regard to their logical start address.   
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 1 , furthermore comprising:
 receiving or generating an additional secret defined independently of the cryptographic key;   wherein, for encrypting the data to be written, the additional secret is employed for each write session in addition to the respective cryptographic key provided for encryption, so that targeted decryption of the encrypted data is only possible if both a secret decryption key corresponding to the cryptographic key and the additional secret are known.   
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein determining a free physical storage subarea of the data storage system to be used during a respective write session to write the write session-related data and selectively assigning this storage subarea to this write session take place subject to a session counter, which is changed each time the activation signal is detected so that each counter reading of the session counter is selectively assigned exactly one write session and exactly one specific storage subarea corresponding thereto. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 8 , wherein the changes in the counter reading always take place in the same counting direction. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein at the beginning of each write session for the storage subarea assigned to the respective write session, a file management structure which is individually adapted and assigned to this storage subarea is defined, which is used for the later writing of data in the context of the write session. 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 10 , wherein the size of the assigned physical storage subarea available for writing in the context of the respective write session (W i ) via the file management structure adapted thereto, is offered by the file management structure as one of the following two options:
 a) the entire physical residual storage size of the data storage system which has not yet been written to or has been released for overwriting; and   b) a predefined storage size or, if it is no longer available in its entirety, a physical residual storage size of the data storage system that is actually still available and has not been written to or released for overwriting.   
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 11 , wherein in the context of option b) the storage size is configurable in the context of the physical residual storage size which is actually still available and has not been written to or released for overwriting and is predefined subject to the respective write session. 
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising at least one read session for read accessing data previously written to the data storage system during at least one write session, the read session comprising:
 checking the permissibility of the respective pending read access by authenticating an object to be granted read access;   if the check reveals that the read access is permissible, determining ( 170 ) at least one storage subarea assigned to the authenticated object from the set of storage subareas assigned to one or more of the previous write sessions in each case;   reading access-protected data from the one or more storage subareas determined in this way;   making the read data accessible by canceling the access protection in the context of the current reading session; and   outputting the data that has been made accessible.   
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 13 , wherein the check is or will be defined in such a way that it shows that the read access is
 a) the entire physical residual storage size of the data storage system which has not yet been written to or has been released for overwriting; and   b) a predefined storage size or, if it is no longer available in its entirety, a physical residual storage size of the data storage system that is actually still available and has not been written to or released for overwriting.   
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 11 , wherein in the context of option b) the storage size is configurable in the context of the physical residual storage size which is actually still available and has not been written to or released for overwriting and is predefined subject to the respective write session. 
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising at least one read session for read accessing data previously written to the data storage system during at least one write session, the read session comprising:
 checking the permissibility of the respective pending read access by authenticating an object to be granted read access;   if the check reveals that the read access is permissible, determining ( 170 ) at least one storage subarea assigned to the authenticated object from the set of storage subareas assigned to one or more of the previous write sessions in each case;   reading access-protected data from the one or more storage subareas determined in this way;   making the read data accessible by canceling the access protection in the context of the current reading session; and   outputting the data that has been made accessible.   
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 13 , wherein the check is or will be defined in such a way that it shows that the read access is permissible if and to the extent that at least one of the following conditions applies in the context of the read access:
 the data to be read in the context of the read access was written after an activation signal was last detected;   the data to be read in the context of the read access is classified as data which should be readable with every permitted read access.   
     
     
         15 . The method according to  claim 13  in conjunction with any one of  claims 10  to  12 , wherein reading the access-protected data from a respective specific storage subarea comprises:
 checking whether the respective read access relates to a storage address in the specific storage subarea, in which storage address data has already been written in the context of a previous write session relating to the storage subarea; 
 if this is the case according to the result of the check for the respective read access, reading the access-protected data using a mapping of logical storage addresses to physical addresses of the storage subarea; and 
 otherwise, reading the access-protected data using the file management structure individually assigned to the storage subarea. 
 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 checking whether the respective read access relates to a logical storage address for the specific storage subarea which is accessible via the file management structure assigned to the storage subarea;   if this is the case, reading the access-protected data according to the method according to  claim 15 ; and   otherwise, reading the access-protected data using a mapping of this logical storage address to a physical address of the storage subarea which is not accessible via the file management structure.   
     
     
         17 . The method according to  claim 10 , wherein the file management structure assigned to the storage subarea for the respective write session is written to the storage subarea. 
     
     
         18 . A data processing system for session-based and secure access control to a data storage system, the data processing system comprising
 a processor: and   a memory coupled with and readable bv the processor and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed bv the processor, causes the processor to:
 detect an activation signal to initiate access to the data storage system: and 
 at least one write session to write write session-related data to the data storage system: 
 wherein each of the at least one write sessions comprises: 
 in response to detecting the activation signal, determine a free physical storage subarea of the data storage system to be used during the write session to write the data and selectively assigning this storage subarea to this write session; 
 receive or generate the data to be written in the context of the write session; 
 protect the data using an access protection which protects it from later access from unauthorized other access sessions to the data storage system; and 
   output the access-protected data in order to write it to the storage subarea of the data storage system that is selectively assigned to the write session, or to cause this to be done.   
     
     
         19 . The data processing system according to  claim 18 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
 protect the write session-related data;   detect the activation signal;   determine a free physical storage subarea of the data storage system to be used during the respective write session to store the write session-related data, and to selectively assign this storage subarea to the respective write session; and   output the access-protected data in order to write it to the storage subarea of the data storage system that is selectively assigned to the respective current write session, or to cause this to be done.   
     
     
         20 . A storage system, comprising:
 a data processing system; and   a data storage system having at least one data storage;   wherein the data processing system and the data storage system are integrated in the storage medium as a common structural unit; and   the data processing system comprises:
 a processor; and 
 a memory coupled with and readable bv the processor and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed bv the processor, causes the processor to:
 detect an activation signal to initiate access to the data storage system; and 
 at least one write session to write write session-related data to the data storage system: 
 wherein each of the at least one write sessions comprises: 
 in response to detecting the activation signal, determine a free physical storage subarea of the data storage system to be used during the write session to write the data and selectively assigning this storage subarea to this write session; 
 receive or generate the data to be written in the context of the write session; 
 protect the data using an access protection which protects it from later access from unauthorized other access sessions to the data storage system; and 
 output the access-protected data in order to write it to the storage subarea of the data storage system that is selectively assigned to the write session, or to cause this to be done. 
 
   
     
     
         21 . The storage system according to  claim 20 , wherein the storage medium is designed as a mobile device. 
     
     
         22 . A recording system for continuous or repeated sensory detecting of real events or states of objects over a period of time and for providing recording data representing these detected events or states;
 wherein the recording system is configured to cooperate with a data processing system to use a storage medium for storing the recording data by:
 detecting an activation signal to initiate access to the data storage system; and 
 at least one write session to write write session-related data to the data storage system; 
 wherein each of the at least one write sessions comprises: 
 in response to detecting the activation signal, determining a free physical storage subarea of the data storage system to be used during the write session to write the data and selectively assigning this storage subarea to this write session; 
 receiving or generating the data to be written in the context of the write session; 
 protecting the data using an access protection which protects it from later access from unauthorized other access sessions to the data storage system; and 
 outputting the access-protected data in order to write it to the storage subarea of the data storage system that is selectively assigned to the write session, or to cause this to be done. 
   
     
     
         23 . The recording system according to  claim 22 , wherein the recording system is configured to enable a replacement of the storage medium by a user of the recording system in order to alternatively use multiple interchangeable mobile storage media, each mobile storage media comprising a mobile device temporarily storing the recording data as a storage medium. 
     
     
         24 . The recording system according to  claim 22 , wherein the data processing system is integrated therein. 
     
     
         25 . A non-transitory, computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein which, when executed on one or more cause the one or more processors to provide session-based and secure access control to a data storage system by:
 detecting an activation signal to initiate access to the data storage system; and   at least one write session to write write session-related data to the data storage system;   wherein each of the at least one write sessions comprises;   in response to detecting the activation signal, determining a free physical storage subarea of the data storage system to be used during the write session to write the data and selectively assigning this storage subarea to this write session;   receiving or generating the data to be written in the context of the write session;   protecting the data using an access protection which protects it from later access from unauthorized other access sessions to the data storage system; and   outputting the access-protected data in order to write it to the storage subarea of the data storage system that is selectively assigned to the write session, or to cause this to be done.